Kallstrom calls it quits

["Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>]

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Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 09:23:12 -0700
Subject: FBI Kallstrom (TWA investigation) will retire....

12/10/97 -- 5:44 AM

Leader of TWA criminal investigation retires from FBI 

BALTIMORE (AP) - New York FBI chief James Kallstrom will retire at the end of
the month, ending his 28-year law enforcement career only after wrapping up the
bureau's investigation into the crash of TWA Flight 800. 

``It was not in my character to leave before the TWA Flight 800 investigation
was concluded,'' Kallstrom, 54, said Tuesday. ``I thought I owed it not only to
the bureau but to the victims' families and to the American citizens.'' 

FBI Director Louis Freeh said Kallstrom was his supervisor when he joined the
FBI in the 1970s and ``was one of my models.'' Freeh,
who appointed Kallstrom as one of six assistant directors in 1995, tried to
persuade him to remain in office. 

``I love him,'' Freeh said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
``But on the other hand I understand that he was a dedicated and loyal FBI agent
who has sacrificed a lot. I also think TWA took its toll on him both emotionally
and physically.'' 

Last month, Kallstrom suspended the FBI's search for a criminal cause into the
July 17, 1996, disaster that claimed 230 lives, saying no
evidence of a bomb or missile was found. The National Transportation Safety
Board is continuing an investigation into mechanical failure
and is holding hearings this week in Baltimore on its findings. 

Kallstrom, who has two young daughters, told the AP that he will take a job as
senior executive vice-president at MBNA Inc., an
international bank and credit card company based in Wilmington, Del. 

``I have to take care of my family and make sure my daughters are educated
properly. I don't leave because I want to leave but it is time
for me to think about other responsibilities. My time has come.'' 

Kallstrom, who is two years short of the FBI's mandatory retirement age, said he
was ``honored to run the flagship office of the FBI and
I leave it in good hands.'' 

Kallstrom has found friends among the families of those who died in the TWA
explosion. 

``I love this man,'' said Michel Breistroff of Paris, who lost his adult son in
the explosion. Breistroff said he had grown to trust Kallstrom
despite his own doubts at times about the openness of the U.S. investigation.
          
``He has shown me such compassion. We are so connected now,'' he said. 

Part of Kallstrom's blunt, get-it-done style was formed in the jungles of
Vietnam, where he fought as a Marine and developed a hatred
for hypocrisy after what he believed was the misrepresentation of the war to the
American people. 

He joined the FBI in Baltimore shortly after leaving the Marines in 1969. Within
the year, he was in New York City, following pizza
trucks alone in the middle of the night because he suspected they were part of a
drug conspiracy. The case developed into a major
mob-drug prosecution headed by Freeh, then a prosecutor. 

Soon Kallstrom was leading teams of agents as they planted microphones in rooms
where mobsters met. The tapes captured notorious New York mob boss John Gotti,
who was later sent to prison for life. Before the end of the 1980s, Kallstrom
helped put behind bars scores of mobsters from every major crime family in New
York. 

Kallstrom said he will miss the FBI. 

``The day I walk out the door for the last time, it will be one of the saddest
days of my life,'' he said.

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